Comics soup and rice

(very nice)

.

Not intentional, but I'm rather pleased that my list of book finished just before and after Comic-Con includes only one book not comics. Perfect. Makes me look like I deserve that PROFESSIONAL badge.

076) I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis and Corey Egbert (et al), finished July 16

I've never read any of these books, original or comicsized, but this one in particular I felt allergic too. I feel like anything 9/11y is apt to be terrible and inappropriate and I hate it.

Which isn't fair, but goes to show how little I, who was over a thousand miles away, have yet to heal from that day.

Lady Steed and I feel we've done a bad job talking to our kids about 9/11 and what it means and why they should care—and that's probably because we're not good at talking about it fullstop.

Enter this book.

I only put it on hold because I learned that the artist is LDS and, well, I'm supposed to be some sort of expert or something.

I was utterly enrapt. I did not want to talk to anyone. It's not a long read but I was deeply connected to the story emotionally. I assume we can thank Tarshis's original novel for this (in her afterward she talks a bit about her reticence to write this story—but this IS history to kids; a bit of history whose [more direct] impact on them they are more aware of than, say the Titanic), but props to Georgia Ball who write the adaptation and the art team. I was moved.

And dang it. I'm making my kids read it.

before and after dinner

077) Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff, finished July 18

This is such a Norman Shurtliff book. Cute animals. Page layouts as from an activity book. High fantasy and high adventure. Everything you expect from him, now from a major comics publisher. And it's high time.

This is a very volume-one kind of book, but it has plenty of odd details and offers opportunity for our understandings of characters to evolve, even in its short page count. It bodes well for whatever comes next. I hope it sells so he can tell us!

on the train

078) Epileptic by David B., finished July 19

This is a powerful and difficult book. David B.'s stark imagery as he takes us through his family's struggles with his older brother's epilepsy, through all the bizarre and esoteric pathways his parents in their desperation walked down in their desperation. The black-and-white images are filled with grotesque faces, monsters and ghosts, images of death and battle. He covers family and world history. He engages with fringe religions and diets. The work is dense and thought-provoking.

It's also deeply personal and situated clearly in France, mostly from the 70s to the 90s, and thus a window into a foreign land in a recent time. For instance, it's shocking, as someone from the western states, to hear casual antisemitism, but its place in this story helps me understand Europe and its people better than a paragraph in a high-school history book.

This was originally published in pieces, but here it's not easy to tell where one part ends and another begins. And this compiled volume is bookended by a page of prose on each side by the third sibling. Her second witness and unique voice makes the entire thing even more true and meaningful.

A powerful memoir.


i think three days

079) Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Shannon and Dean Hale, and Asiah Fulmore; finished July 30

Delightful. Doesn't do anything new but does old so well.

an evening

080) Fadeaway by E. B. Vickers, finished August 2

I hardly ever read YA lit anymore because so much of it tastes the same. Add this to the list of books I didn't anticipate spending more than ten pages on before returning it to the library. However, anticipation was wrong. I zipped through this book, intrigued by the mystery and the characters. The chronology is scrambled but it's easy to follow.

Mild spoiler alert (and THANK you cover, for not giving this away), but this is a book about the opioid disaster our country's been living through, filtered through the experiences of excellent human teenagers. The book has red herrings that work fine in prose but would be trickier to pull off in a film. (Though Disney+ might as well try serializing it as Star Wars is the novel's favorite allusion.)

Anyway, I really liked it.

three days

081) You're Dad by Liz Climo, finished August 4

We heard Liz Climo speak at Comic-Con which was largely a choice of convenience but one I'm glad we made. Her stuff is funny and smart and sweet. Plus, I appreciated the wise things and funny anecdotes that came out of her Simpsons years.

Anyway, this little giftbook for dads is good. Typical giftbook stuff but her cartoons elevate it.

one sitting

082) Meanwhile...A Comic Shop Anthology, finished August 5

This is kind of the perfect Kickstarter anthology. It's all stories "about" comicbook stores. Some are very literal, some are scifi, some barely touch on the topic. It's the lack of "right answer" to what a comicbook-store story should be that allows the artists to try so many different things. Some of the stories are bad, many are underdeveloped, and a few are excellent. Which is great. I hope all the artists here grew, and will now find further attention. Good luck to them all.

two days then another day later on